JEFFERSON CITY — After speaking with eight "high-level" staffers in Gov. Eric Greitens' office, Attorney General Josh Hawley found no evidence of illegality in the gubernatorial use of Confide, a messaging application that deletes messages after they are read.

The investigation was launched after the Kansas City Star reported that Greitens and many of his senior staffers were using the app to communicate without leaving behind records of their digital conversations. Questions arose about the necessity for the secret communication app and whether Greitens' office ran afoul of the state open records law by using Confide.

The report — which was sent to the News-Leader on Thursday not by Hawley but by Greitens' office — said Hawley's office "has not identified any basis for concluding that (Greitens' office) has violated Missouri law through the use of Confide" by the governor's official personnel.

"This thorough report recognizes that we have gone above and beyond what the law requires in the interest of transparency," said Parker Briden, Greitens' press secretary. "We look forward to working with the legislature to modernize the state records retention and Sunshine law to bring further clarity to these issues."

Hawley's office confirmed Friday morning that it did not authorize the report's public release, but did allow Greitens' office to see the report ahead of time as a courtesy. Hawley' office also said it gave the same courtesy to Democratic State Auditor Nicole Galloway's office following a recent investigation after she, too, faced questions about possible Sunshine law violations.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Buy Photo

Then-candidate for Missouri Governor Eric Greitens speaks to a crowd attending a rally in favor of statewide Republican candidates held at National Safety Compliance in Springfield, Mo. on Nov. 2, 2016
Guillermo Hernandez Martinez/News-Leader

Then-candidate for Missouri Governor Eric Greitens speaks to a crowd attending a rally in favor of statewide Republican candidates held at National Safety Compliance in Springfield, Mo. on Nov. 2, 2016
Guillermo Hernandez Martinez/News-Leader

In this Aug. 2, 2016, photo, Eric Greitens poses with his wife, Sheena and his two sons Jacob and Joshua at a watch party at the Doubletree Hotel in Chesterfield, Mo., after he was declared the winner in the Republican Governor primaries. Greitens has acknowledged being "unfaithful" in his marriage but denies allegations that he blackmailed a woman to stay quiet, following a bombshell news report that overshadowed his annual address to the Legislature on Jan. 10, 2018. (J.B. Forbes/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
J.B. Forbes, AP

FILE - In this May 23, 2017, file photo, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens speaks outside the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. In a press release Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018, Greitens rolled out the pillars of his tax plan without much specificity, saying he wants to lower income taxes for most Missourians and eliminate those taxes for some of the lowest earners in the state. He promised more details in the coming weeks.
Jeff Roberson, AP

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens greets lawmakers as he enters the House chamber to deliver the annual State of the State address to a joint session of the House and Senate, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Jefferson City, Mo.
Jeff Roberson, AP

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens held a rare press conference at his office in the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2018, in Jefferson City, Mo. Greitens discussed having an extramarital affair in 2015 before taking office.
Jeff Roberson, AP

Gov. Eric Greitens, shown during a Jan. 30 visit to Springfield, still has a Confide account, although The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday that Greitens' office had banned the use of Confide and similar applications in its revised records retention policy, dated Jan. 17.
Andrew Jansen/News-Leader

Gov. Eric Greitens takes questions from the media after signing legislation to make Missouri the 28th right-to-work state at the abandoned Amelex warehouse in Springfield on Feb. 6.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens cheers on a crowd after several protestors were removed from the building before a ceremonial signing making Missouri a "right-to-work" state at the abandoned Amelex warehouse in Springfield, Mo. on Monday, Feb. 6, 2017. The law, which goes into effect on Aug. 28, prohibits unions from charging membership dues as a condition of employment.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens takes questions from the media after signing legislation to make Missouri the 28th "right-to-work" state at the abandoned Amelex warehouse in Springfield, Mo. on Monday, Feb. 6, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens takes questions from the media after signing legislation to make Missouri the 28th "right-to-work" state at the abandoned Amelex warehouse in Springfield, Mo. on Monday, Feb. 6, 2017.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens cheers on a crowd after several protestors were removed from the building before a ceremonial signing making Missouri a "right-to-work" state at the abandoned Amelex warehouse in Springfield, Mo. on Monday, Feb. 6, 2017. The law, which goes into effect on Aug. 28, prohibits unions from charging membership dues as a condition of employment.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Because Confide automatically deletes messages, Hawley's investigators could hardly have reviewed communications among Greitens' office to determine whether any of their messages constituted more than a transitory document. The report notes that its findings are "based on the records and materials available," which in large part are the words of Greitens' top employees.

High in the report, Hawley's team noted that Greitens' office "asserted a blanket objection to all questions regarding communications between interviewees and the Governor based on the doctrine of executive privilege." Greitens' office did provide investigators with relevant documents and "voluntarily turned over additional documents not requested" by Hawley's office.

Five of Greitens' senior staffers acknowledged that they "used Confide to discuss matters relating to their government employment." Hawley's office was told by Greitens' staff that all Confide communications were "transitory" in nature and "exclusively non-substantial and generally involved logistical and scheduling matters." Transitory documents "may be destroyed when no longer needed by the governmental entity," the report notes.

For example, the report says, "several interviewees stated that they had used Confide to discuss the scheduling of meetings or phone calls." Because these were considered transitory records, Greitens' office "had no obligation" under state law "to retain the communications" and didn't break the law by not retaining the self-deleting Confide messages, the report says.

"These accounts appear credible, though the nature of Confide necessarily means that no documentary evidence exists to corroborate (or contradict) this testimony," the report said.

Only one of the Greitens staffers interviewed was found to have downloaded Confide onto his state-issued phone. This individual told Hawley's office "he sent these messages to himself in order to understand how Confide works and how messages would appear to recipients" and that "none of these messages related to public business."

The governor's office altered its policy on using Confide after Hawley kicked off his investigation to clarify that staffers weren't to use apps that send self-destructing text messages; the policy applies to any discussion of public business, regardless of whether state-issued or personal phones are used.

The attorney general's report notes this change toward compliance and also reiterates that it is not best practice for government workers to use apps like Confide due to "the risk of inadvertent violations of these principles."

"While the available evidence in this case indicates that messages transmitted over Confide constituted 'transitory' communications that need not be retained, it is conceivable that some text messages do fall within record series that require retention," the report says. "If a public employee were to receive such a communication via Confide, she would be unable to retain that communication as required by Missouri law."

However, though many of Greitens' senior staffers have deleted Confide, several members of the governor's office, including Greitens himself, continue to have accounts on a different app called Signal, which is used by "select" staffers "in certain limited circumstances."

Signal allows for encrypted calls and texts, Hawley's office accurately reported, though the report does not mention that Signal features an option to send messages that disappear.

Greitens' staffers told Hawley's office they used such an app for circumstances that the director of the Department of Public Safety, Drew Juden, "judged to present particularly acute risks of cybersecurity threats."

The governor's office considers "all materials related to this app" to be closed under the state's open records law, citing exemptions that allow government bodies to close records pertaining to terrorist incidents and public telecommunications networks.

Greitens, a Republican in his first term who also faces a felony charge of invasion of privacy, continues to maintain accounts on both Confide and Signal. Many of his GOP allies outside the Capitol continue to have Confide accounts, as well.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat challenged in her re-election bid by Hawley and others, opined in a news release Friday morning that Hawley's handling of the investigation "has lost him all credibility with the people of Missouri" and questioned the seriousness of Hawley's investigation into Greitens.

This story was updated Friday morning to include more information from Hawley's office and to reflect McCaskill's statement.